in-app purchases

Now that Disney owns the Star Wars franchise, I am wholeheartedly expecting them to release as many games, toys, mugs, pizza cutters, and door mats branded with the license as humanly possible. Frankly, Disney would be an idiot not to cash in on Star Wars' mainstream and cult followings. That is why it is no surprise to see the beta release of Star Wars: Rivals on the Play Store. It is also no surprise to see that it is a free-to-play corridor shooter rife with poor controls, repetitive levels, and loot crates that are explicitly tied to plenty of in-app purchases.

People love Minecraft, and Microsoft loves that people love Minecraft. Still, wouldn't it be nice if Microsoft could make some more money? That's where the new Minecraft Marketplace comes in. It's a marketplace (duh) where community creators can list content for sale, and Microsoft gets a taste of the action.

It has definitely been a long time coming for this worldwide release. Over a month ago I wrote up a piece about Dynasty Warriors: Unleashed having had a soft launch in a few limited regions. Well, today gamers around the world can download the latest offering of this well-known slash 'em up franchise.

The funny thing about comic book stories is that the usual roles of protagonists and antagonists are reversed: the villains are the ones who are proactive, trying to achieve something new (even if it is something awful), while the heroes are only concerned with stopping them. That's why people love a good villain - aside from being generally more fun to watch than the goody-two-shoes superheroes, they're also the ones who drive the story forward. It's also why games like Dungeon Keeper and Infamous are so popular: it's just more fun to be the bad guy.

Fire Emblem and I go way back. I have played many of them, but the one I most fondly remember is Path of Radiance on the Gamecube (the one that introduced Ike). The series is known for its turn-based tactical gameplay with anime-styled characters and common JRPG story elements. Nintendo has done a good job at promoting the series throughout its lifetime, especially when it comes to the 3DS releases, and inspiring loyal fans to pick up the latest title. I am not ashamed to note that I am in that demographic. So when Fire Emblem Heroes was announced, you can bet that I got damn excited.

Despite some deep problems with the initial launch and a steep drop-off in players after the novelty began to fade, Pokémon GO can't be called anything less than a massive success. Aside from securing a spot (if only a fleeting one) in wider pop culture, Niantic's augmented reality monster-catching game has also managed to warrant partnerships from real-world retail stores and secure no small amount of income from in-app purchases. How much isn't precisely known by anyone except Apple, Google, and Niantic, but one analytics firm has a guess. And that guess has nine zeroes in it.

Kairosoft, makers of Game Dev Story (who'd have thought a game about making games would be so addicting?!) have released their newest title in the long running simulation series: Legends of Heropolis, in which the player takes on the character of a hero to rebuild a desecrated town.

Like some of the recent Kairosoft games (although unlike Game Dev Story), Legends is ad-supported, meaning it is a free download from the Play Store. However, the gameplay is mostly similar to other titles from the company, feeling a bit like Pokémon games of old with a splash of modern RPG added in.

Match-three games are inherently derivative at this point - there's only so much spin you can put on a genre so played-out that even your grandma is probably getting a bit bored swapping kitty cats for lollipops in a landscape best described as the pink-and-yellow paletted fever dream of a six-year-old. But if you're looking for yet another match-three indulgence that sits in at least one of the more desirable mid-outer circles of hell, you might enjoy the latest take on the genre from one of its earliest innovators, Pop Cap, in the form of Bejeweled Stars.

Uncharted is one of the signature franchises on the PlayStation, and it's about to extend to the PS4 with its (allegedly) final entry, Uncharted 4. Surprisingly it hasn't come to Android or any other mobile platform until now. Uncharted: Fortune Hunter eschews the third-person shooting and Hollywood set pieces of the main series in favor of some rather basic puzzles, in the same vein as Hamilton's Great Adventure. It's free in the Play Store.

Here's a bit of a blast from the past. A federal judge has decided that Amazon was in the wrong when it billed parents for in-app purchases made by their kids on its Appstore platform. Both Apple and Google settled this case with the Federal Trade Commission two years ago, but Amazon wanted its day in court. It didn't go so well.